So-So News for 'The Newsroom'

The Call Sheet sifts through the day's glut of Hollywood news to find the stories even non-industry types care about. Today: HBO's newest drama had a decent debut, Maura Tierney gets a juicy new role, and Miley's dad heads to Broadway.

This just in: Aaron Sorkin's new HBO drama The Newsroom premiered last night, and the ratings were... just OK. With 2.7 million viewers across two airings, the cable news network-set series lost a significant portion of its True Blood lead-in, but still ranked among one of HBO's best debuts since 2008. So pop a bottle of champagne, just not the magnum. Reviews for the show haven't been great, and Twitter reactions last night were pretty harsh, so we'll have to see how many viewers the show holds onto. It gets worse as it goes, so... The outlook could be grim. [Entertainment Weekly]

Here is some resoundingly good TV news. Maura Tierney, former E.R. nurse and onetime NewsRadio-er, will be recurring on next season of CBS' great, sudsy-smart series The Good Wife. She'll be playing "a self-made millionaire who has become the doyenne of Chicago Democratic politics." That sounds like a good role for her! She's good at tough-babe stuff and plays smart people well. Basically The Good Wife continues to have the sharpest guest casting in the biz. If you like good, interesting actors, you should probably watch The Good Wife. Or you can keep watching the rest of the stuff on CBS and let the oatmeal continue to burble out of your mouth. [Deadline]

Oh, dear. Billy Ray Cyrus, possessor of an achy-breaky heart, a teenage wood cricket known as Miley Cyrus, and a soul patch that defies reason, will soon be making his Broadway debut as Billy Flynn in Chicago. So that ought to be... something. At this point so many randos have been through Chicago that it doesn't really matter who plays what. Why doesn't he just do Velma or Roxy? No one would notice. We just ask that he not show us Number 17, the Spread Eagle. That's all. [The Hollywood Reporter]

We've been wondering if Peggy Olson leaving the ad agency on Mad Men means that the character, and thus actress Elisabeth Moss, is off the show, and now Moss has chimed in, basically saying... Well, she can't say much, but it doesn't sound like she's really gone? So that will be comforting for Peggyheads out there. Peggers? Team Peggy? Whatever you people call yourselves. [Vulture]

Ha. The producers of Atlas Shrugged, Part 2 have announced that the film will be released on October 12th of this year. You remember Atlas Shrugged Part 1, right? It came out last year with Taylor Schilling from The Lucky One as Dagny Taggart? Yeah, well, they've made the next installment in the story and you will soon be privileged enough to pull your boot straps all the way to a theater to see it. Samantha Mathis plays Dagny this time, and is joined by D.B. Sweeney, Esai Morales, and the mom from Suite Life of Zach & Cody. I smell Oscar! You know, Oscar the Grouch. Who lives in the garbage. That's what I smell. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary, the kinda bitchy oldest sister on Downton Abbey, has joined the cast of a spy miniseries called Restless, alongside Charlotte Rampling, Hayley Atwell, Michael Gambon, and Rufus Sewell. So that sounds pretty good! Cast-wise, at least. It seems the series will air on the Sundance Channel in the U.S., which means that we'll be watching it on YouTube or Netflix or something. Sorry, Sundance. But it's the truth. [Deadline]

Speaking of Downton Abbey, here's a first look at Shirley MacLaine as Lady Mary's American grandma, having a little tête-à-tête with Maggie Smith. We were skeptical about this casting, seemed a little stunt-y, but now we are very excited.